The Birth of a Map
by Sweet Jane
Summary: This is how I see the creation of the Marauder's Map, as well as the development of Lily and James' relationship (not a love/hate thing...I'm tired of that). Features James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Snape, Peter and more! Might be long. Please R&R!!
1. The Animal Kingdom

Disclaimers:  
  
I own none of this, but that goes without saying  
  
I do my research, so my stories are based in as much "fact" as I can get a hold of. I'm all about creativity, but this is someone else's idea…if I wanted to make a bunch of stuff up, I'd write on my own original ideas.  
  
Having said that, this is easier and more fun  
  
Instructions for Reading:  
  
Enjoy and REVIEW!! I like feedback  
  
  
  
Chapter 1: The Animal Kingdom  
  
If someone had looked one second earlier, they would have sworn it was a motley group of animals roaming the halls. But before anyone would have even had a chance to wonder what a dog, a stag and a rat were doing together inside a school, even a magic school, before anyone could even blink, there were three boys, instead of animals.  
  
Two of the boys looked alike enough to be brothers. Dark hair, dark eyes, both tall, both with the typical bodies of 15 year-old boys; skinny now, but with a promise of broad shoulders and strong muscles to come. But they weren't identical. Especially when you looked at their eyes. One, the slightly shorter of the two, had very serious brown eyes and wore wire frame glasses. The other had brown eyes as well, but his had the look of eyes that were most often sparking with mischief.  
  
The third boy was, well, there's no other way to put this; he was squat. Not exactly fat, more what you might call pudgy. But it was the way he moved, the way he walked, that gave any onlooker the unfortunate impression he was, well, squat. He had limp brown hair that made his round face look even more bulbous and the sweat pouring down his pale skin at the moment was really not at all attractive.  
  
All three boys were panting.  
  
"This is getting ridiculous!!" said the more serious of the taller boys, "That's the third month in a row Pringle has come close to catching us! If anyone finds out what we've been doing, we'll be expelled for sure. And then where will Moony be?"  
  
The smaller boy spoke up, "Maybe we should just leave him be! I mean, we can't keep him from changing, so what good are we…really?"  
  
"Wormtail! I'm surprised at you! We've worked almost 5 years, FIVE YEARS, to get where we are so that we could help our friend. And now, simply because of a little risk, you want to give up! We've finally succeeded in doing something most wizards don't even dream of doing! We can't let it all go to waste," the boy without glasses looked like he was ready to explode as he spoke.  
  
"Padfoot," the serious boy spoke again, "How can you seriously be surprised?? Wormtail has always been concerned about us getting caught. And I have to admit that I agree with him. We need to find some way to insure that we will not get caught. I wish there was some way to know where everyone in this castle was when it's important to know!"  
  
While the boys had been talking, they had been moving swiftly through the maze of hallways that made up the interior of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As if to prove the serious boy's point, when they turned the last corner before they reached their destination, and safety, a very pretty girl with her arms full of thick old books was nearing the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the three boys.  
  
"A little light reading, Miss Evans?" said Padfoot, the typical teasing light in his eyes.  
  
"Yes," she replied. "As I had nothing to do this weekend, I thought I'd get a little ahead in my school work." She was responding to Padfoot's question, but she was clearly sending a message to the more serious boy beside him.  
  
"Lily, I'm really sorry. You know I would have taken you to Hogsmeade this weekend if I could have, but I already had plans…" the serious boy began.  
  
"Hogwash!" Lily said suddenly.  
  
"Oh, Lily, please don't be that way." But as he spoke, he had to back out of the way of the rapidly opening portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress that guarded entrance to the common room.  
  
"You're lucky I was here, James," Lily smiled as she stepped through the portrait hole, "Otherwise you and your friends would have been stuck out here without the new password. And that might have been very embarrassing come morning. Sirius," she nodded to Padfoot, "Peter," this was to the small Wormtail, "Good night, James," she said to the serious boy and then she disappeared into the common room.  
  
Sirius could hardly keep the smile off his face. "Trouble in paradise, Prongs?"  
  
James glowered at him, and then turned to cast the same look at a snickering Peter.  
  
"I don't know what you two find so funny. At least I have a girlfriend. She's just upset because she thinks I prefer spending time with you two and Moony to spending time with her. I can hardly tell her why I have to spend time with you three every month."  
  
Sirius looked offended, "She only thinks you prefer spending time with us. She doesn't know it?? We're your mates, Prongs! We were your mates long before that pretty little Lily Evans was even willing to look in your direction. I mean, don't get me wrong. I like her and all, but you've got to get your priorities straight!" James could tell Sirius was only half-joking. They all moved through the portrait and up to their room that they shared with Moony, and a new student.  
  
"Well, if nothing else, we need to work out a way to get around this school without being noticed. The Invisibility Cloak is great, but it doesn't keep us from knocking things over." With this comment James looked directly at Peter. Peter always complained about getting caught, but he was usually the one that caused Apollyon Pringle, the schools caretaker, to come running when he heard the loud crashes and bangs Peter's awkward movements often created.  
  
Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment as they entered the room, keeping quiet so as not to wake Benjamin Bruce, their fifth roommate, "We'll discuss it with Moony when Dumbledore brings him back in a few hours. Maybe we can work something up. Right now, what we need is some sleep." He looked at the clock on his dresser. "Well, not much sleep. Breakfast is in only 3 hours."  
  
They got ready for bed quietly, with all the energy of three boys who hadn't gotten any sleep all weekend. When they were finally settling in for the night, Wormtail looked at James sleepily.  
  
"What do you think Lily was studying this late at night? She would have had to sneak into the library to find all those books at this hour. That's an odd girl you've got there, Pro…I mean, James," Wormtail had stopped himself from using James' nickname just in time. Even though Ben was asleep, they couldn't take any risks.  
  
"Yeah, she's odd. But, she's also wonderful. Goodnight you two," James said over their quiet snickering. 


	2. The Importance of Being on Time

Chapter 2: The Importance of Being on Time  
  
The next thing any of them knew, the door to their room slammed open.  
  
"G'day, mates. Time to get up. You missed breaky, but I didn't want youz to miss our next exciting Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Better hurry! I was just about to rock up there myself, but I figured you four could use a look-in."  
  
"You know, Ben," said Sirius, "I thought that rooming with an Australian would be interesting, but sometimes I don't understand the words that are coming out of your mouth! I always thought that you Aussies spoke the same language as us."  
  
All the boys, including Moony, who had returned at dawn, were hastily, if sleepily, putting their robes on and gathering their books.  
  
As they rushed to their class, Peter spoke up for the first time that morning, "What's the idea of starting the day with Defense Against Dark Arts? As if the material isn't hard enough, we have to deal with a professor who hates all Gryffindors, and a group of Slytherins who are hardly what I would call morning people!! It's the worst way to start the week."  
  
"You know what's an even worse way to start the week?" said Moony.  
  
"What, Remus?" said James.  
  
"By being late for Defense Against Dark Arts class!!"  
  
And with that, all five started to run. They skidded to a halt outside the room, but it was too late. The door was already closed. Sirius swore under his breath as James slowly opened the door.  
  
A greasy looking man in his mid-fifties stood at the back of the room projecting images from his wand to the front of the room. He was demanding the student identify the dark creatures he was showing within three seconds when the door opened, shedding light into the dark classroom.  
  
"Ahh, I see the Gryffindor boys have finally decided to grace us with their presence," the professor said with his nasty smile.  
  
"Professor Snape! We were just…" Ben began.  
  
"Arriving late for my class. I am well aware of that, my young convict."  
  
Ben flushed at the mention of his country's heritage, but managed to hold his tongue with a strength of will the others didn't know he possessed.  
  
"Five minutes…Five students…Since I'm feeling generous, I think that 25 points from Gryffindor will suffice."  
  
"But…" James started.  
  
"If you object, I could easily make it 50."  
  
They quietly took their seats with this threat, trying not to look at the very amused group of Slytherins sitting across from them.  
  
"I would have thought that I hardly needed to remind you how important this class is in these troubled times." Snape sounded almost emotional as he moved to the front of the class. "You know you are all safe here in this castle, but you do not spend 365 days a year here. Nor will you attend this school forever. You will need to know how to defend yourselves in the real world, outside the microcosm that is Hogwarts, against a darkness more powerful than any of us have ever encountered. As unrealistic as it may seem, some of you may become powerful wizards of note," Snape looked at the Slytherins when he said this, "and He-Who-Must- Not-Be-Named, as so many of you insist on calling him, may search you out. How will you defend yourselves if you are not prepared?"  
  
There was an unnatural silence in the room. Hogwarts teachers rarely spoke of the turmoil going on outside the school because of Lord Voldemort's reign of terror.  
  
"Professor Snape, sir?" A Slytherin with greasy hair and the same hooked nose as the teacher raised his hand.  
  
"What is it Mr. Snape?" the teacher responded irritably. It always amazed the other students how formal Brutalis Snape and his son Severus were with each other.  
  
"Sir, has something happened? Have there been new attacks?"  
  
James couldn't help but notice that more than a few of the Slytherins looked intrigued rather than frightened by this prospect.  
  
"Well, I suppose you will hear of it soon enough. The Daily Prophet will be back in publication in a few hours as it is. Yes, there has been another attack. Three Muggles were tortured and killed, as was an Auror who sensed the problem, but didn't realize the magnitude of the danger. Four more deaths at Lord Voldemort's hand."  
  
Most of the class gasped at Snape's use of the name. Even the Slytherins looked upset at the thought that an Auror had been killed. They were supposed to be untouchable. They were the ones hunting the Dark Lord.  
  
James felt the same stunned anger that he always felt with the news of an attack. He glanced at Lily, who looked like she was about to cry, but he couldn't catch her eye to try and reassure her. Sirius hadn't moved from the moment Snape had said the word "Auror." Sirius's father was an Auror and had not been home for more than two days in a row since he was put upon to track down Voldemort and his follower. Peter wore his typically terrified look, but there was something in his eyes that James couldn't identify. It was almost calculating. But that wasn't possible. Peter was not the brightest wand in box, but he wasn't a bad person. Sometimes, though, James couldn't shake a terrible feeling about him. Remus looked almost too tired to be distraught. The weekend was, as always, terrible for him. His friends had tried to make it better, but Remus' time as a werewolf always exhausted him. Still, he looked even more weary after the news than he had before. He ran one hand through his sandy- colored hair, disheveling it further. Both Snapes looked visibly upset. It was well known that even though Professor Snape was the head of the house that had turned out many of Voldemort's known supporters, he hated everything to do with the Dark Lord. And by extension, his son must also hate him, because Brutalis expected nothing less of Severus than to be a younger version of him.  
  
"We must not dwell on this. What is done is done. We must prepare for the future. And that means continuing on with this lesson. Today I am going to teach you a very useful spell, Revelium Cachus. This spell will reveal hidden things to you, but most importantly, it will give you some idea of the location of a person you choose to find. And before any of you ask, through the use of Dark Magic, you can permanently counteract this spell, so of course He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named cannot be found this way. In fact, I caution you to be highly suspicious of anyone who you cannot find with this spell. There are different ways to show where your target is, but I will demonstrate the easiest."  
  
Snape turned and pointed his wand at the wall and said in a clear voice, "Revelium Cachus Dumbledore." A spark shot out of his wand and a clear image, much like a Muggle movie, came to life on the wall. It was the head and shoulders of the Headmaster, clearly sitting in his office studying something in his hand and looking very upset. Snape seemed to realize this was not a moment the Headmaster might want to the students to see and quickly said, "Nox," and the image was gone.  
  
"As you can see, the spell is ended the same way you extinguish a wand light. In fact, they are fairly similar spells, only in this spell the light is projected, rather than contained. I would like you all to split up into pairs. One half of the class will go out in the hallway and stand in front of a portrait. The other half will use the spell to tell me what portrait their partner is standing in front of."  
  
Sirius had his hand on James' arm before Lily could even turn around and look at him. She looked angry, but turned and came up to Remus, gave him her prettiest smile, and asked him to be her partner. He was only too happy to oblige, sending a sly look in James' direction. Peter paired up with a shy girl named Caroline Weasley, who blushed whenever anybody talked to her, which made her look to be the same shade of red as her hair.  
  
They began working on the assignment, each student still in the classroom trying to project the image of their partner on the wall. Lily and James had no problem finding Remus and Sirius, standing in front of two portraits out in the hall. Sirius was imitating everything the elderly witch in his painting was doing, right down to the rude jesters she made when she noticed that he was mocking her.  
  
"Professor Snape?" Caroline asked timidly, "I can't seem to find Peter. I think I'm doing the spell right."  
  
"I am certain that you are NOT doing it right Miss Weasley. Try again. This should not be that difficult."  
  
Snape seemed to be ignoring the fact that half of the Slytherins were unable to find their partners as well.  
  
They switched after a few minutes, and the group of castors went to stand in the hall now. James chose a portrait of a knight in dented armor who was trying to get his chest plate off, but who seemed to be stuck.  
  
"Lose your battle, Sir Knight?" James said.  
  
"Oh, sod off!" the knight responded just before falling over backwards from the weight of his armor.  
  
Lily giggled a little at this interchange, from her stance across the hall. James was pleased to see she was acknowledging him at least. He smiled tentatively at her, and she smiled back.  
  
"Will you have lunch with me today?" He asked.  
  
"You mean, with you and the boys??" She seemed to still be a little angry with him.  
  
"No, just me and you. The weather is still holding, so let's have a picnic."  
  
Lily just smiled and said, "Maybe."  
  
When class was ended, the boys headed back to their dorm to get all the books they had forgotten in their haste that morning.  
  
Remus seemed a little more put out than usual after a weekend as a wild creature.  
  
"What's wrong," Ben asked, noticing this.  
  
Remus didn't answer, but Sirius spoke up.  
  
"Oh, he's just off because he couldn't get the spell to work. He tried and he tried, but no Lily."  
  
"You must just be tired, Mo…Remus," Peter corrected, "You're normally excellent in that class. Even Snape doesn't hate you as much as he hates the rest of us."  
  
Remus still said nothing, and James couldn't help but wonder if it really was Remus' fault that he couldn't do the spell. But that was stupid. Why would Lily have to protect herself from being found?  
  
"You must just be tired, Remus," James said in a tone that allowed no argument. 


	3. Tickling the Lemon

1 Chapter 3: Tickling the Lemon  
  
All morning, students were buzzing with the news of the recent attacks. The teachers refused to discuss it, so the rumors were spreading like wild-fire. As James went to meet Lily for lunch, a group of third years were walking in front of him, and he couldn't help but overhear their conversation.  
  
"Mum sent me an owl to tell me that dad's all right. He's an Auror, you know." The girl that spoke seemed to be so immensely relieved that she could barely talk at a normal rate. James felt terrible for her. He had very strong feelings about witches and wizards with families becoming Aurors. The chance of leaving the children parentless was far too high.  
  
"I heard that 50 Muggles were k-k-killed. I bet I could have stopped the attacks in a second. In fact, I bet I could defeat H-H-He-Who-Must-Not- Be-Named if they'd only l-l-let students go after him," said an abnormally small blond boy. James had seen him before. With his big ears and almost cartoonish buck-teeth, he was probably the oddest-looking of the third years  
  
"Is it possible that you could exaggerate more, Gilderoy?" another girl teased. "You start shaking like a leaf whenever Snape mention so much as a pixie!"  
  
"I wish you would all just f-f-forget about that! It only happened a few times!!" As the boy said this, he reached under his robes. He then muttered something under his breath, but James seemed to be the only one who noticed.  
  
"What were we talking about?" said the first girl who had spoken. She didn't seem as upset anymore.  
  
"Tranfiguration homework," the boy named Gilderoy responded.  
  
"Oh, yes!! I've got two scrolls completed…" and they continued down another hallway.  
  
James laughed to himself. It was nice to see some of the younger, less adept students trying out spells, even if spells weren't technically allowed between classes. Gilderoy's simple Memory Charm was fairly harmless, and if it kept him from getting teased, than James wasn't going to stop him.  
  
Besides, James thought, who was he to be lecturing other wizards about the morality of magic? Hadn't he broken one of the biggest wizarding laws and become and an unregistered Animagus. If anybody other than his friends knew about it, he'd be thrown in Azkaban quicker than he could say "Alohomora." He didn't even feel he could tell Lily, as wonderful as she was. She was rather found of rules, and it would be a burden for her if she had to lie for him.  
  
He rounded a corner and came to a large painting of fruit. He reached out and tickled the lemon, and the portrait swung open.  
  
"Mr. Potter, sir!! S'good to see you!" said a male house-elf with a mop in his hand. "What can we doez for you, sir?"  
  
The house elves were already crowding around him, offering him plates of food. James liked house-elves. They were very nice, friendly creatures, and it just seemed to be in their nature to want to serve wizards. They also liked James. He cleaned up his own messes and never tormented them. In fact he came to visit them at least once a week, so they were only too happy to prepare a picnic basket for him.  
  
"You are taking out your pretty girlfriend?" asked one particularly well-spoken female.  
  
"Yes, I'm trying to make up a fight that we had," James said. As always the house-elves were understand.  
  
"She likes you. You don't have to worry. She's just playing hard-to- get," smiled the female.  
  
James laughed at the idea of Lily playing hard-to-get. That was one of the things he loved about her; she didn't play games.  
  
James stopped on his way out the portrait hole. One of the things he LOVED about her?? Well, that certainly wasn't something he wanted to think about too heavily at 16. It was just an expression, anyway. He wasn't ready to be in love.  
  
But just seeing her out on the front lawns of the school made his heart leap. She truly was beautiful in a very down-to-earth way. She never used magic or make-up to enhance her appearance because she didn't need to. Especially with those eyes. Magical green eyes that sparkled and danced and made James want to kiss her. So he did.  
  
When they parted, Lily smiled up at him, and he could tell she had forgiven him. They sat spread a blanket on the grass and James began to unload the food from the basket.  
  
As he poured Lily a glass of pumpkin juice, he asked, "How is your family?"  
  
"Oh, they're well. Mum and Dad send their love to you. Petunia, of course, sends nothing but spiteful glances," Lily replied.  
  
"She really hates me, doesn't she?"  
  
"She hates everything to do with magic. You know that. But she's also jealous. Her boyfriend Vernon is not nearly as handsome as you! He's trying to grow a mustache, but it looks more like a catepiller crawled over his lip and died!" Lily started laughing, and James did too. Lily's sister was a few years older, not nearly as good-looking, and very jealous of everything about her sister.  
  
"That reminds me," Lily said pulling an Atlas out of her bag, "I wanted to show you the interesting trick I've learned. You know that spell Snape taught us this morning?"  
  
"Uh-huh," James mumbled around a bite of sandwich.  
  
"Well, I've found something really neat to do with it. I was looking up the spell in our book, since Professor Snape mentioned there are other ways to do the spell, and you know he's going to expect us to know them! Well, look at this." She opened up the atlas to a map of England, pointed her wand and said, "Revelium Cachus Petunia Evans." A very small dot appeared on the page, a little west of London, that was labeled in very fine letters "Petunia Evans."  
  
"That is pretty great. I bet that comes in handy for a lot of mothers. Wait!" James started laughing uncontrollably, "I just got it! Lily and Petunia!!"  
  
Lily was staring at him like he grown a second head, which he had done in Potions in his second year. It had taken him nearly a month to get convince the second head to take the antidote. Actually, he wasn't quite sure he had given the right head the antidote, since each was equally convinced that *he* was the real James Potter.  
  
James and Lily had a nice lunch, enjoying the last of the fall sunshine before it started to get really cold. As they were enjoying a pudding that the house-elves had prepared, James thought back to his earlier disturbing train of thought. Was he in love with Lily? He admired her greatly, thought she was pretty, and she was a fantastic kisser, but did that mean he loved her? He'd never though much about love in general. His parents weren't a great example, since they had only married each other because that's what the children of rich families do; they married other children of rich families.  
  
Lily grew suddenly sober and asked him, quite out of the blue, "Are you in love with me?"  
  
"Are you a mind reader?" he asked trying to avoid her question.  
  
She smiled slightly and said, "You know I couldn't stand to take Divination. Crystal balls drive me batty!! Listen, forget I said anything. I shouldn't have done that."  
  
"No, Lily, it's your right to ask. To tell the truth, I've started wondering that myself lately. I know I love being with you, and I adore you. But I don't know if I'm ready to be in love. It's too serious, you know. Because once I'm in love with you, there's a whole heap of scary things that go along with something that wonderful."  
  
Lily let out a breath that she seemed to have been holding the whole time he was talking. "You don't know how relieved I am!! I'm not ready either. I just like being your girlfriend. And we're young! We have our whole lives ahead of us, so we don't need to start thinking about anything serious right now."  
  
James smiled and they began to pack their lunch away. They walked through the hallways of the school in silence. Before James turned off to return the basket to the house-elves, Lily stopped him and gave him a very gentle, very sweet kiss.  
  
"By the way, I think we should name our first son Stephen."  
  
"I've always been partial to the name Harry, myself," James said as Lily walked away. He had a smile plastered on his face as he tickled the lemon. 


	4. Burning the Midnight Wand

Chapter 4: Burning the Midnight Wand  
  
Lily was studying late, as usual. She sat in the corner of the Gryffindor common room with her back to the empty room, so that nothing, not even the fire, could distract her. Her books were spread all around her, and the clock had struck 1 am not that long ago. But she had to keep up. It was true that she and James were both at the head of their class, and they were both prefects, but everything seemed to come so naturally to James. Lily had to work for it. James could stay out all night with his rowdy friends, not touch a quill and still get full marks on everything he did. Even Snape had trouble finding fault with him. But here she was, still working on her assignments at the small hours of the morning and not even fully understanding what she was doing. That was why she had cast the counter-spell to Revelium Cashus. She wanted to be able to get to the library late at night without anyone knowing how much effort she had to put in. She didn't know exactly what drove her like this, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it might be James. She couldn't get over the feeling that she'd lose him if she wasn't perfect like he was.  
  
As if thinking about him had somehow conjured him up, she heard James' voice on the stairs behind her. She shrunk lower in her chair, knowing there was no way to leave without him seeing her and finding out that she wasn't as naturally talented as him.  
  
"We have to do something, Padfoot, because we're eventually going to get caught."  
  
Lily wondered who Padfoot was, but she couldn't turn to look from her hiding place.  
  
"Prongs, we're good, but we're not *that* good. Something like this would take skills well beyond our levels." Lily could tell it was Sirius talking. She would know his voice anywhere. She had harbored a secret crush on him the first 2 years they had been at Hogwarts, but she had since come to realize that James was a much better match for her.  
  
"I agree with you, Padfoot. Individually, we aren't powerful enough to do something like this, but together, we can do just about anything." That was Remus' voice as far as she could tell.  
  
"I guess you're right, Moony. So, what's the first step?" Sirius again.  
  
There was only one of the Fab Four left to speak. Lily had, by this point, figured out that each boy had a secret nickname. She quietly wrote on the paper in front of her, 'James=Prongs, Sirius=Padfoot, Remus=Moony, Peter=???'  
  
"I still don't understand what the plan is, guys!!" And Peter had spoken. Or, as was more appropriate in Peter's case, whined.  
  
"Wormtail, do we have to explain this all again??"  
  
'Peter=Wormtail' Where were these nicknames coming from?  
  
"Remember the spell we learned this morning? Well, Lily showed me a way to adapt it so that you can pinpoint someone's location on a map. I say we start working on a map of Hogwarts, and try to make the map such that it will always show us where everyone is," James was speaking quickly, as though he were very excited about this idea  
  
Lily had to stifle a sigh. Of course they were up to something illegal. If they actually succeeded in creating such a thing, the Ministry of Magic would love to know about it.  
  
"We'll need to start doing some research as soon as possible. I'd like to have this thing up before the next full moon, so that give us almost a month. If we can succeed, then we'll be able to avoid everyone when we sneak out. I don't mind getting caught out of bed, because it's happened before, but if anybody finds out what we can do, we'll be expelled."  
  
Lily didn't like the sound of that. She knew James had been hiding something from her, but she didn't know it was something that important. She always just assumed he had webbed toes or something.  
  
"You're right," said Sirius in a playful voice, "If anyone found out I could do this, I'd be in trouble."  
  
Lily couldn't help it, she turned to peek over the edge of her chair just in time to see Sirius transform into a large black dog. And before she could even blink, a tall stag stood where James had, and something…a rat, stood where Peter had. This time Lily couldn't hold back her gasp.  
  
In a heartbeat, the three had transformed back to their human state and were staring at her, seemingly unable to move.  
  
"Well," said Lily, trying to sound casual, "at least I know you don't have webbed toes." 


	5. A Clarification

Chapter 5: A Clarification  
  
I hate to interrupt the flow of my story, since I'm having fun writing it, but there seems to be some confusion. The Professor Snape I mention in this story is the father of the Professor Snape in the real storyline. Severus Snape was in the same year as the Marauders, and I will feature him more later in the story (which may end up being long), but he and his father appear in chapter two.  
  
There are a few of my own questions that I wanted to answer with this story.  
  
Why didn't Harry notice someone named Pettigrew on the Map in Book III? (I think I hinted as to why, in my story's universe, that is in chapter 2)  
  
Why is Snape so obsessed with the position of DADA teacher? This is why I introduced the character of his father so that there would be some clear motive later in life.  
  
Why did Sirius play such a mean trick on S. Snape (sending him to meet a very wolfy Remus)? I will address my thoughts on this later.  
  
  
  
Well, that's all for now. If you have any suggestions as to where you think my story should go, I'd be open to them! I was thinking of having Lily be a Deatheater, but a certain SiriusBPadfoot put a stop to that train of thought (though I still suspect she might be in the real storyline). Thanks for the feedback so far, and please give me more! It makes me feel special!  
  
Love,  
  
Sweet Jane 


	6. Night Whispers

Chapter 6: Night Whispers  
  
An hour later, James returned to the room he shared with the other Gryffindor 5th years. Peter was snoring loudly, but Remus and Sirius were obviously still awake.  
  
"How did it go?" Sirius whispered. He had been waiting for the past hour to here what James had told Lily. Sirius had his doubts about how she would react to their extra-curricular activities. Lily was so…Lily.  
  
"I told her everything." James said hesitantly.  
  
"EVERYTHING???" Remus gasped.  
  
"Well, she already knew about you Moony," James whispered defensively. "She's not stupid. She noticed a long time ago that you were always sick around the same time each month. She said she ruled out that you weren't secretly a girl, and so only one other option remained. I think she knew even before we did, and she hasn't blabbed in all these years, so I don't see why she'd start now."  
  
"What about the…other part?" Sirius said, with a glance towards the sleeping form of Ben.  
  
"She was naturally surprised about that bit. You know how it bothers her to not know something. However, she said she'd keep our secret, but only if…" James paused.  
  
"If *WHAT*?" Sirius and Remus whispered in unison.  
  
"If I teach her how we do it."  
  
A stunned silence followed.  
  
"You can't be serious!" Remus exhaled  
  
"No, that's Padfoot," said James, trying to lighten the situation.  
  
"Lily?? But she's such a goody-goody!" Sirius was clearly shocked.  
  
They were starting to get loud, and Ben's breathing had changed.  
  
"We'll talk about this tomorrow, OK?" said James, always the voice of reason.  
  
The other two boys saw the wisdom in this idea and they said good night. However, in the fifth year boys' room, only Peter and Ben without worry.  
  
I'm sorry this is so short. This started out as part of a longer chapter, but that chapter was so long that it needed to be cut. This seemed like the only logical place to end it. Please give me some suggestions of where you think this should go. I know there's nothing in the books about Lily being an Animagi, but there's nothing about her not being one either. Any votes on what animal she would be. And I haven't decided if she's a Death Eater or not. But if she will be, it will be for some other reason than just because she's evil (because she isn't, obviously). 


	7. A Few Notes

A few notes:  
  
I have to agree that there are a lot of unregistered Animagi running around, even without the addition of Lily. That's what made me think of it. It seems like the Ministry of Magic, like any government facility, has some serious deficiencies. I've wondered if maybe during the rise of Voldemort, less strict tabs were kept on things not pertaining directly to the dark arts. It seems like all 5 known unregistered Animagi would have gained this power during the 11 years (I think) of Voldemort's reign.  
  
That also brings up, sort of, an interesting logic problem I've had with the wizarding world that is affecting the way I'm planning out this story. In book 2, the Ministry of Magic is instantly aware of the spell being used at the Dursley's. They even knew what kind of spell it was. If they can keep this kind of tabs on magic being practiced by underage wizards, couldn't they also have a screen to sense when somebody was transforming into an animal or, more importantly, using the dark arts? Also, in book 4, it is revealed that you can see the last spell cast by a wand. It seems to me that this would be excellent evidence is a court case…say, the murder trial (I assume there was one) of Sirius Black. And that being the case, wouldn't this have cleared him of the murders?  
  
I'm not trying to nitpick, I'm honestly curious as to what people think about these point.  
  
And I'm still not sure what to do with Lily. I'd like to have her be something the books sort of lack…a strong, interesting, multi-facetted female character. But it's how to go about doing that that has me stuck. I have a few ideas on the Animagus thing that I need to think about before I make a final decision. 


End file.
